MD Did Pirsig flip-flop on equality?

From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2004 - 17:39:06 BST

  • Next message: Mark Steven Heyman: "MD Horsepucky in the MOQ"

    Hi All,

    There appears to be a contradiction or at least a question regarding
    Pirsig's views on "social equality." At first, he praises the concept:

    "The idea that "all men are created equal" is a gift to the world from the
    American Indian. Europeans who settled here only transmitted it as a
    doctrine that they sometimes followed and sometimes did not. The real
    source was someone for whom social equality was no mere doctrine, who had
    equality built into his bones. To him it was inconceivable that the world
    could be any other way. For him there was no other way of life. That's
    what Ten Bears was trying to tell them.
    Phaedrus thought the Indians haven't yet lost this one. They haven't yet
    won it either, he realized; the fight isn't over. It's still the central
    internal conflict in America today. It's a fault line, a discontinuity
    that runs through the center of the American cultural personality. It's
    dominated American history from the beginning and continues to be a source
    of both national strength and weakness today." (Lila, 3)

    But later, he says the following:

    Cultures are not the source of all morals, only a limited set of morals.
    Cultures can be graded and judged morally according to their contribution
    to the evolution of life. A culture that supports the dominance of social
    values over biological values is an absolutely superior culture to one
    that does not, and a culture that supports the dominance of intellectual
    values over social values is absolutely superior to one that does not. It
    is immoral to speak against a people because of the color of their skin,
    or any other genetic characteristic because these are not changeable and
    don't matter anyway. But it is not immoral to speak against a person
    because of his cultural characteristics if those cultural characteristics
    are-immoral. These are changeable and they do matter. (Lila, 24)

    On the one hand, he says social equality is a good thing. On the other, he
    says it's not a good thing to think that all societies are equal.

    Is this a flip-flop? If not, what's the difference?

    Thanks,
    Platt
     

    MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
    Mail Archives:
    Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
    Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
    MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net

    To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
    http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Aug 12 2004 - 17:35:43 BST